St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-03-17
A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA.
Facing westward.-From the Connecti-
cut to the Ohio.

There Is one serious OOJecCiOn 10 u
Raymond excursion; it forever after
units one for travel in any other man
ner. At least that is the experience of
the writer. So when the two Stones
decided to travel they at once secured
tickets of Raymond and WhitcOmb. To
add to their good luck that prince of
travellers and sight-seers, Mr.. Luther
Holden is both our guide and encyclO
pedia.
At precisely two o'clock Monday at
ternOon, March 7, Pullman train OF
five cars, with a baggage and commits
sary car, left the Fitchburg depot at
Boston for long journey of eight
thousand five hundred miles. The
two forward cars have thirty-six pas
sengers booked for California and the
two rear cars have thirty five passen-
gers ticketed for old Mexico. The
fifth car is dining car. Fully one
half the party are women, and while
few of both men and women may call
themselves young, the most are con-
siderably past middle life. In the
Mexican list is Mr.. Elisha B. Taft of
Burlington. Both parties travel to-
gether by special train all the way to
Ell PasO, Texas, where they divide
March 2Ist, your correspondent going
with those who take in California.
Aside from the two longest stOps-at
Cincinnati and New Orleans-the en-
tire party eat, drink and sleep on the
train. You never could get used to
sleeping on the cars You are prob
ably much mistaken. 1t is a poor
night when the writer does not put in
eight or nine hours sleep, and if it
were not for the low hum of converse
tiOn between the couple who "always
awake at six" this sleeping time might
be still further extended. The sway
ing of the car on the curves is like
the rocking of cradle, while the
scream of the locomotive is as soothing
as n mothers lullaby. But the man or
woman who is so ignorant, thOughtless
or malicious as to talk or make other
disturbance in IA sleeping car during
sleeping hours never should enter one.
these trains, it is equal in every re-
spect to good hotel. How it can be
so is a never-ceasing wonder, but so
it is.
The heavy. body of snow in Massa-
chusetts had all disappeared when we
awOke Tuesday morning at Elmira, N.
Y, and mud and bright spring sun
shine prevailed all day. AT Wellesley
and Clean a singular sight greeted the
eye. Great circular iron oil tanks
were seen by the score and hundred.
from $4,000 to 10000 barrels of oil
each, are grouped in the valleys, on
the hillside and sometimes on the crest
of the hill, looking like forts of defence.
They are not unlike the St. JOhnsbury
reservoir in appearance, and are num-
bered by the thousand in the vicinity
of the oil districts. These tanks are
owned and operated by the United
Pipe Line and are used to store the
crude oil in. The oil is pumped from
the oil fields, Is to 25 miles away, into
these tanks and then it is i'm turn
pumped to the refining works as want
ed. Most of these refineries are at
Jersey City and vicinity, over $50
miles away, and large main pipe con-
hects the two. 1t is asserted that the
company invested at the outset only
about $4,000 in this plant, and that
their annual income is now fifteen
million dollars. This immense enter
prise gives some realizing sense of
American enterprise if it does not in
crease ones respect for the Standard
Oil Co.
The ride through north western New
York, a corner of Pennsylvania and
the big state of Ohio to Cincinnati,
was through generally fine country
dotted with thrifty cities and villages.
Reaching the Queen City at 9 Il. m.
Wednesday the party was quartered at
the Gibson HOuse-a fine hOtel-fOr
"a hours. There is considerable of in
terest in this city. The new art mu-
scum is on a commanding eminence, is |
built of a handsome gray stone and is
a fine piece of architecture. Although |
opened only last May it has quite a
choice collection of paintings, sculp-
ture, minerals and an elegant display |
of reproductions of some of the chOic-
est articles of vertu from the palaces !
of the crowned heads of Europe. Here
is also seen one of the two remarkable
Japanese vases shown at the centen-
NAL exposition, the other being i'm the
patent office at Washington. Among
the noticeable paintings is the triumph
al entry of Christ into Jerusalem, by |
Hayden. The artist was engaged up
on this masterpiece some seven years.
1t is "a very large picture and contains
many figures all of whom are intended |
to represent well-knOwn characters
such as the Beloved John, the woman
of Samaria, etc.
The city of Cincinnati extends for
many miles along the north bank of
the Ohio river, the boundary between
the states of Ohio and Kentucky. An
immense suspension bridge unites the
city with COvington, Ky. The struc-
ture was erected in 1865 at cost of
over one million dollars. The towers
on either side the river are massive